Maestro, a live streaming engagement and analytics platform, has announced the close of a $3 million Series A funding round. The capital will be used to expand the company’s presence in esports and gaming, while taking its data-driven engagement tools into new verticals.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The round was led by Hersh Interactive Group, one of the investors in Fnatic’s previous$7 million funding round.[/perfectpullquote]

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“Maestro’s rapid penetration within esports supports our thesis that publishers, leagues, and teams will increasingly look for ways to connect with their audiences through branded experiences they control. The product’s strategic design provides a framework for continued innovation and value creation to propel the industry forward as it evolves.”

Additional investors included Rubicon Venture Capital (an investor in Unikrn) and the Stanford-StartX Fund. Maestro have now raised a total capital of $5.8M – its previous $2.8M seed funding included five hundred startups, led by former Hulu executive Andrei Marinescu.

“As sophistication around streaming becomes the norm, the new metrics revolve around quality of interaction, retention, and attribution to the bottom line,” said Ari Evans, founder and CEO of Maestro. “We’re excited to enable businesses around the world to create robust, long-term live streaming strategies through their own destinations.”

Some of Maestro’s non-gaming clients include Adobe, the Grammy Awards, and Coachella Festival. A consideration for these entities is that data collected by Maestro’s platform (including behavioural insights) stays with those producing the streams, rather than those hosting them like Twitch, Facebook or Twitter.

Graham is a business journalist with The Esports Observer, with four years writing in the industry. He covers the governance side of esports, including federations/associations and the Olympic movement. In addition, he is the host of The Esports Observer podcast, and is a frequent moderator at conferences and events. His previous journalistic work covered music and film.